I grew up mostly in Germany, but my favorite summer trip was driving from North Carolina to Texas in a camper with my parents and us six kids.

I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave.

....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday life and shelter it from useless. dreads. In june they are walls of white rhodendron blossom. In autumn the forests set themselves afflame with color. Even winter has its icy charms.

Even with the fact that I grew up in North Carolina, 'Jim Rash' just screams 'Southern boy.'

I grew up in a university town in eastern North Carolina - what's called Tobacco Road. It was very rural.

Barbecue is the third rail of North Carolina politics.